


World of Underguard

by Canadiantardis



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Chatting & Messaging, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Gaming, Long-Distance Relationship, Mentions of Injuries, Mentions of accidents, One Shot, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-25 07:48:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17721086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadiantardis/pseuds/Canadiantardis
Summary: Katie meets someone unexpected when she joins a gaming server.//For Plance Valentine's Exchange





	World of Underguard

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mickey (multi-parker on tumblr)](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Mickey+%28multi-parker+on+tumblr%29).



> Hope you enjoy!

Katie’s heart hammered in her chest as she walked down the street towards the café. She was really doing this, _they_ were really about to do this, and the idea struck her with fear and nerves she had never experienced before outside of her little tinkering projects that turned big.

She had never thought the day would come, when this all began. Just a year ago, if she had gone back in time to tell herself what was about to happen, the younger version would have called her delusional. And yet, Katie saw a figure leaning by the entrance to the café and her heart tripped.

**1 Year Earlier**

Katie scrolled through her feed, chuffing quietly at the funny posts before she would simply scroll further down when something caught her eye. Someone she followed was promoting a chat-platform for a game they both played competitively.

Reading the description of the server, hosted on some site called Tumult, sounded very attractive to Katie. _Talking with others who like the game too? And possibly making stronger teams with voice chats? Yes please,_ She thought as she clicked the link attached to the post.

It took no time at all to make an account and join the server.

**~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~**

**Welcome, GUNDERSON, to WORLD OF UNDERGUARD. Please read the Rules and then introduce yourself with what has been pinned here! Go for Gold!**

**_Gunderson:_** Oh, uh okay. 1: call me Pidge, I don’t give my real name out online, She/her pronouns 2: 18+, I play a mix of support/enhance and tank, I don’t really hand out my gamertag, so if you wanna play with me, private message me 3: I play both comp and casual, ranked in the top 100 last season 4: I recently won a state championship Robotics competition on accident.

 ** _L0v3rb01:_** Woah woah woah, wait, hold up

 ** _L0v3rb01:_** how the hell do you win a STATE CHAMPIONSHIP on ACCIDENT!?

 ** _Ransomware:_** dam, that’s awesome, dude!! but yea, how tf did that happen??

 ** _Gunderson:_** My older brother saw what I was working on, signed me up without telling me until the day before and shuttled me into the competition, and somehow I won.

 ** _L0v3rb01:_** That is

 ** _L0v3rb01:_** INSANE DUDE

 ** _Ransomware:_ **yea, man, that’s awesome

 ** _L0v3rb01:_** NICE JOB

  **~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~**

Katie stayed online for a few more minutes before several other members of the server began to overwhelm her, but there was a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. _Loverboy and Ransomware seemed to be very friendly. I should check on their own intros to see if we could game together sometime,_ She thought as she logged off after saying she had to go, briefly seeing both Ransomware and Loverboy were the among the first five to say some version of ‘see you later.’

Within the week, Katie found herself looking forward to playing Underguard, actively bouncing as she would walk home from work even after a gruelling and dull time. Simply because she had people who were a lot of fun to play with, casually and competitively, even if both Ransomware and Loverboy weren’t very good outside of casual matches. But instead of how she would react to them in competitive matches, she found herself having fun trying to teach them how to get better. Loverboy was primarily a ranged fighter, sniping enemies from afar and keeping tabs on where the enemies were going – a class Katie couldn’t really help with – but he also played support characters that she could help out with, reminding him which characters to focus on, and which to simply let suffer if they were in Support Suicide Areas, as she dubbed it.

Meanwhile, Ransomware was a Tank Main – Katie had asked why he didn’t play any other kinds of characters, and within one game, he got no kills, no heals, and ran around the map like a chicken without a head, and they all decided he should stick with the tanks – so she was able to help him finesse his control to become a force to be reckoned with.

Teaching the two was a bunch of fun, she found, and at the same time, she learned more about her teammates.

Loverboy was really named Lance, a university student for marine biology, and Ransomware was a guy who went by Hunk – Katie was half-sure that wasn’t his real name – and he was at a trade school finishing a mechanics course, but was planning to take another course for cooking when he graduated mechanics.

Katie had laughed at first at the two polar opposite choices until he and Lance gave his reasoning.

“I’m more of a cook, really, but I like mechanical stuff too. And I can easily get both as jobs if I get both of those certificates. I’ll have an advantage over some people trying to get in.”

“But why not just choose one to focus on, and the other as a hobby?” She questioned over the voice channel the three were using.

“Twice as many options, and I like them the same.”

Even as she learned stuff about them, Katie was hesitant towards offering too much personal information. Her parents have told her countless times to not give out personal info on the internet, and she had followed it to the point it became normal to use an online name. The most honest she normally was in terms of personal information was her age, at least after she turned 18.

But both guys were patient with her. While they would both push, or lead to conversations where she could tell them more about herself, they would back off the moment she said not yet.

As the days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to a couple months of being in the Underguard server, she, Hunk, and Lance became a trio, occasionally making a full team with the duo Princess and BlackPaladin, who played fighters.

It was during this time, after spending time talking to them, that she and Lance started talking privately, each enjoying the other’s company and wit.

  **~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~**

 ** _Gunderson:_** How’s your sister?

 ** _L0v3rb01:_** She’s okay. Managed to message us in the ambulance to say she wasn’t badly hurt, but still. Broken leg, concussion. Our Mami just about broke down.

 ** _Gunderson:_** That’s so scary, I’m sorry that happened to you guys. I know how that feels.

 ** _L0v3rb01:_** Oh?

 ** _Gunderson:_** Ahhhh, yeah. My brother, he’s in the army, right?

 ** _Gunderson:_** Just knowing that keeps me and my parents on edge, because he’s been in active duty in the East since deployment.

 ** _Gunderson:_** We got a message, in his third year of his tour, that the plane he was in crashed due to some technical error. Pilot lost his arm, and Matt…

 ** _Gunderson:_** He got really badly hurt. No one knew if he was gunna make it. But he did, luckily, and made a full recovery. Both he and the pilot were discharged, but the time it took from learning he was in an accident, to learning he was okay was a lot longer than for you.

 ** _L0v3rb01:_** … gods. That _is_ scary. Glad he’s okay.

 ** _Gunderson:_** Thanks. It was… downright terrifying to hear.

  **~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~**

Conversations went up and down in tones, and Katie found herself opening up to Lance more and more. How things changed from what she had thought was platonic to openly flirting with one another in both the Underguard server and in private messages is something Katie could not tell, nor was it obvious when things changed. Lance would give her a pet-name, and she would respond to it happily.

At first it was silly ones, related to her nickname. All three of the pokemon related to Pidge were used without question, then it turned to Pidgeon, then Birdie, then sweetheart, dear, honey.

When he first used the pet-name ‘babe’ was when Katie realized maybe they should actually talk things out, as her heart thundered hearing him call her babe while they were just chatting over voice.

_Katie went quiet for a noticeable amount of time, prompting Lance to nervously call out to her._

_“Uh, Pidgey? Did you mute yourself?” He asked._

_She jolted and shook her head. “No, no, I’m here. Sorry, I was just, surprised. Babe, really?” Her heart hurt._

_“Oh.” Lance was quiet for a moment. “Did that make you uncomfortable? I’m sorry, it sorta slipped out and-”_

_“No! No, it just, caught me by surprise.” She bit her lip._

_“Yeah?”_

_“Yes. I… I like how you say it.” She cringed at her awkwardness, smacking her forehead with an open hand._

_Lance chuckled. “You’re really cute, Pidge, you know that?”_

_Katie stammered, unable to make a proper word, all the while Lance laughed at her reaction._

_“Just, be honest with me!” She blurted, her face flaming. She squeezed her eyes shut as she spoke before her brain could tell her to shut up. “Do you, do you, doyoulikeme?”_

_Lance was very quiet for a while, and Katie prayed the connection hadn’t cut out just then. She opened an eye to look at his icon._

_“L-Lance?” She asked weakly._

_“I… Yeah, actually.” He said, and Katie almost combusted on the spot._

Their relationship was difficult, with Lance bemoaning often how he wished he could properly give her affection. He said he found words and gifts to be lacking, but actions and physically being there for one another showed how he really felt. It was at this time they started to send each other pictures, exchanging snapcodes.

While they figured out online long distance dating, Katie told her more personal stuff about herself, including finally telling Lance her real name. She made him promise not to call her Katie when they were with Hunk – “At least not until I’m ready to tell him myself, okay?” – or in other voice channels with others.

Then, after about four months of dating, Lance asked the question which brought Katie back to the present.

* * *

 

Katie looked at the figure, before she looked down to her phone, sending the message.

 ** _L0v3rb01's Pidgeon:_** I’m almost there. Where are you?

 ** _L0v3rb01:_** I’ll be by the entrance. I feel really weird just waiting like this. Hope you hurry <3

 ** _L0v3rb01's Pidgeon:_** I think I see you

She looked back up to see the figure’s head snap up, looking around quickly before spotting her. His head had been hidden by a hood to protect him from the chilly late winter air.

Katie hurried over, her breath appearing in faint white puffs, and she slowed her steps once she saw his face.

Pictures did not do Lance justice. He had a lopsided smile that reached to his eyes and seemed to make them twinkle. His cheeks were darkening from the chill air, but he looked like he could radiate sun-like warmth.

“Uh, hi.” She said shyly.

“Ah, hi.” Lance waved to her, looking her up and down. “K-Katie, hi.”

**Author's Note:**

> I had the idea for a discord-like groupchat thing, and since Mickey didn't have anything specific they wanted, I went with this.  
> If yall can guess who the two other usernames are, I'll be happy, aha :3c


End file.
